Discussion on Avanti Responsive Magento Theme

Due to some comments here regarding to our work and answering time frames we would like to share our position.

So we developed a theme platform which has been tested before its first release to ensure ourselves that every part of it is working fine. Every month we prepare new release where we fix bugs from the previous one and add some extra options or just small improvements because we would like our theme to become better and better and keep it up to date for all customers using it.

Sometimes the theme is bought by a clients who are not so familiar with customization process and the whole work over the website installation and adjustments. This is absolutely fine, of course and we do not mind to help with information or even small set ups. But it seems like some of our clients think that once they bought the theme from us we are required to offer support for changes like “How to change the color”, “How to move this block to another place”, “How to make this change”, “How to make the image smaller/bigger”, and many many other questions like this. There is nothing wrong to ask something like that, but we believe you will understand that when we get more than 20-30 questions per day it takes time, even sometimes 5 min per answer, which makes the time for new theme releases and improvements limited.

One more very important thing – once a client buy the theme they do a customization to adapt the theme to their needs. That is great and normal! But how can we be aware what kind of customization and modifications the client did? So when you write us with issue we need to check these changes and after that we can give correct instructions how the issue can be solved. Please have in mind that once the theme is bought, installed and customized it becomes out of our control and most of the time our job has been modified. This affect its normal work for sure!!!

Most of you knows that when a client asks for customization because they are not sure how to do it, we always recommend them to contact developer or freelancer, exactly because this job requires some knowledge, and if they are not aware how to do something the risk form a mess is quite huge.

Most of you also know that our customization support (which is paid – we would be happy to support our work with some money, however we prefer not to get them but to do our job with theme improvements!!!) is temporary closed exactly because we need time to make the releases and bug fixes on time, so our clients will be happy with the theme. But again we get a ton of mails regarding to the small and time consuming issues. We try to help everyone and still do some customization. If the requests are 2-3 it is ok, but when we get about 20 e-mails per day all the time goes to the customization issues instead of our major work.

Finally we would like to apologies to all our clients who waited for our responses and to thank them for their patience and understanding. We will continue our work for you and will do our best to make you happy with your purchase. Thank you!

One suggestion I have that could eliminate a lot of the repeat questions is building a large FAQ or setting up a support forum. I realize that it can be tedious to answer the simple questions, but if you had a community behind it we could share our answers or help eachother.

The other thing is when someone asks how to fix something why not post the answer here instead of asking for the FTP details, that way other users can read the solution without bothering you.

Hi, yes, you are right and now we are working on this exactly. As soon as possible we will have a knowledge base with frequently asked questions and hopefully that will help a lot.

Why we ask for log in details we wrote above – the solution depends on the customization done after the theme installation. What the question is common we post the answer directly, but most of the time we need to check first and then send a solution.

However thank you for sharing your thought with us, this is much appreciated. It is always good to have more opinions to make the support better.

I like the way your site looks, so I want to buy it, but I need somebody to service it afterwards (implement necessary changes and update it). Since you have developed the website, you know it very well. My question is: can we come to an additional agreement, so you will completely service the website for me?

Hi Paul, apologies for the delay, less staffed over the Easter holidays. Usually we offer a customization support for our clients, but it is closed temporary now due to the high volume of work over the new theme features and hosting support. We still cannot fox exact date when the support will be open again, but we presume this will happen in a month at least. Until them we recommend to our clients to contact developers/freelancers who can assist with the theme customization. The theme is based on Magneto platform so each developer who is familiar with it should handle it without troubles.

Thank you for your understanding and we hope to see you soon in Avanti’ family.

At ShopShark, we are constantly trying to improve the quality of our products and services. As a result, we are moving to a new support system which will provide much better customer service and support.

Avanti is an incredibly good looking theme, a rare one that I still think will convert well. (the problem with many Magento themes is that they waste enormous amounts of space in order to look good, and for whatever reasons, customers tend to not to buy as much from sprawling designs)

That said, will this be updated for Magento 1.8.1 and newer?

Also, do you offer (for pay) installation or customization services? I know you’ve overwhelmed with free support questions, but I’m glad to pay. In fact, I’d bet most merchants would be. Running a store costs money. That’s fine. It’s good to charge for help.

Hi, thank you for your kind words, much appreciated. At the moment we are working on the next major release for our other theme, named Milano and once we finished with that we plan to update Avanti as well. Unfortunately still cannot fix exact time when it would be available, but hopefully in a month.

Yes, we do offer a customization support already and the fee starts from $20 per hour and depends on what kind of customization is needed. The best way to get an exact price is to send us a list with issues and we will make an offer.

My developer and I have been trying to get support but cannot open a support account on your website as you ask for a purchase code, but I don’t have such a think on Themeforest. Just a download area.
anyway, created ticket: Ticket Created! #515518

Hi, unfortunately still cannot fix a date. At the moment we are working on another our theme – Milano, Once we finished it we will prepare the update for Avanti. If you still didn’t please check Milano as well, you might like it also. Thanks.

Lately we receive a lot of e-mails with customization requests. As most of you already know we are always trying to assist our clients so they can get the best of our themes, but if you wish to have a bug free improved and functional theme which is more valuable for money than now we need our time to prepare and test it. Unfortunately 80% of the time we dedicate to a customization which actually is not our responsibility.

Also we notice that huge amount of the requests are for customization of the theme which has been modified already by a third person. In that case we cannot be useful as we are not aware how the changes have affected the original files and codes. As a result we take the negatives of the non working theme, although it is not our fault. Due to this from now on we will not proceed any customization in case the theme has been previously customized/modified.